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Natives and Friends

Come fall, even the most amazing California natives garden starts to become a bit of a sorry sight. Mind you, all my neighbors' gardens here in the suburbs don't look much better. Tired knock-out roses. Shrivelled salvias. And let's not talk about the brown&green patchwork that used to be a lawn.

However, as a passionate gardener, I strive for a few eye-catching beauties year round, and here's where a few non-native, non-invasive plants - I call them "Friends of the Natives" come in.

Above a sedum that has done well in my garden and that harmonizes with Epilobium 'Calistoga', with some last yarrow blossoms, and with a native Artemesia.

Succulents, in general, do well in my garden. I'm focussing on succulents that get by with little or no water - a great match for my natives. And I like to pick succulents that bloom at a time when my natives are either done or not ready yet. Above, South African Cotyledon orbiculatum elongatum, with the beautiful "leaves" matching the greyish leaves of CA native Eriogonum arborescens (Santa Cruz Island buckwheat).

And above, the Cotyledon blossoms, showy at exactly that moment in summer when the CA annuals have started to fade.

A yellow blooming aloe (from Africa, I think) has also been a success - and it's blooming in early spring, where everything (except the manzanitas) looks a little dismal.

You might ask about native succulents - my experience has been that they are either from the coast - and prefer a little more moisture than is customary in my garden. Or they're from parts of the desert where it rarely freezes. I do have a lovely chalk dudleya and a few Dudleya traskiae (Santa Barbara live-forever). But they look their best in the spring, so I'm glad about the more exotic friends of my natives.

A surprising success story has been my combination of natives and fruit trees. I have several dwarf fruit trees in my garden, and they thrive (with some extra irrigation lines added). I love the first plum blossoms in the spring, and Mr. Mouse and I very much enjoyed the delicious fruit we harvested all summer. My many spring-blooming natives have been pollinator magnets, and even when the weather looked so gray and wet that I didn't dare hope my plum tree would be pollinated, some industrious little critters were out there getting a snack and helping me out at the same time. Of course the big challenge is to have garden that blooms year round and that still has a CA native feeling. But that's for another post...

Comments

Wonderful post and a great topic. I'm enjoying my succulent bed - and I've also been thinking about how to spark up the fall garden with some ornamentals - though the Madia elegans are still putting on a great show of yellow blooms, and the California fuchsia are sprinkling an orange-red sparkle here and there.

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I posted about how I backed into this hugely fun project here. In this post, I'll provide what advice I gleaned from the web, and show how I extended the dry creek across our south garden, to drain down into the chaparral slope.

I'm not done yet, but it's amazing how much you can do in a short time. Friends gave me all the river rocks - Yesterday, local friends offered me 4 bags of small pebbles which really helps vary the look - a mixture of small and medium river rocks are really required.

So, to get back to the beginning of this project. After I put a short creek for drainage in the succulent bed that is next to the house, I decided to continue it, and break up the south garden layout a new way -- nibbling into Experimental Bed #1 on the left, and rerouting the cross-wise path towards the right.

I played around with the hose quite a bit - and when I was digging out I made more adjustments. I made the river widen on the outer curves of a meander.

I've been busy starting seeds! October is a good time to start a lot of seeds, except for the winter dormant ones -- the ones you have to stick in the fridge three months to convince them winter is over! Those are better done in Feb-March. I'm so happy! Some are already germinating!

I'll write more informative posts about all the stuff I'm starting by and by. This is just a seed-fest!

With the exception of the pipe vine - all seeds are of local California natives that grow on our around our property on a ridge about 6 miles inland from Santa Cruz.

Check out seeds of Aristolochia californica, Dutchman's pipe vine, which I blogged about in my last post - bagging the seed pods worked out great!

Speaking of propagation, I wrote an article for the Sentinel about propagation, as in who propagates the plants for the sale, as publicity for the Santa Cruz County chapter of CNPS and the UC Santa Cruz arboretum fall plant sales, which were today!

Dec 30 2017 6:35 am SaturdayLife is like a leaking sieve, a fishing net with holes and, of course, a boat with growing leaks. Felt sad taking down that spicebush yesterday and still unsure whether such drastic action was warranted.

Sat and looked and poked and trimmed and then went aw F*** it.

Especially [felt ambivalent] since the shrub I was privileging over the spicebush is an ambiguous one, likely a seed of Dark Star ceanothus, that reverted to one or other, or "favored"--as in "he favors his mother's side"--one parent heritage over the other. Because of all its buds. Like being unable to not love the baby cuckoo. Ambiguous heritage. I felt damned if I did or didn't.